Three ways of cleaning silver sit on the same shelf, and they do not do the same thing. A polishing cloth rubs the tarnish off. A paste rubs it off faster, with a finer abrasive suspended in a cream. A dip dissolves it off, without rubbing at all. All three will make a tarnished piece bright again. They differ in what else they remove, what they leave behind, and what kinds of pieces they should never touch. Choosing between them is less about which works — they all work — than about what the piece can afford to lose.
The Cloth, Used Lightly
Start with the cloth, because it is the gentlest and the right choice most of the time. A silver polishing cloth is a soft cotton cloth impregnated with a very fine abrasive and, usually, a tarnish inhibitor. Used with light pressure, it takes the tarnish off the raised surfaces and leaves the recesses alone, which is exactly what a piece with texture or an intentionally darkened finish needs. Its cost is small but real: the abrasive removes a microscopic layer of metal along with the tarnish. Used lightly and only when the piece is actually tarnished, that loss is negligible over a lifetime of wear. Used hard, daily, on the same edges, it adds up — raised detail softens, sharp edges round, and on a plated piece the thin silver layer can wear through to the base metal underneath. The cloth is gentle, but it is not nothing, and the difference between gentle and careless is pressure and frequency.
A Paste Cuts Faster
A paste is the same idea with more force behind it. Silver pastes and creams carry a finer or coarser abrasive in a carrier that keeps it on the surface, and they cut faster than a cloth, which makes them the right tool for a piece that is heavily tarnished or for flatware that has gone black in a drawer. The trade-off is control. A paste gets into recesses that a cloth passes over, and it takes the dark finish out of engraved lines and textured areas along with the tarnish on the high points. On a plain, smooth piece that is no loss at all. On a piece whose design depends on contrast — dark recesses against bright raised metal — a paste flattens the design, and the contrast, once polished out, can only be restored by a jeweller re-darkening the recesses. Pastes also leave residue. If the residue is not rinsed off thoroughly, it sits in the joints and around settings and attracts grime, and some pastes contain additives that complicate later work on the piece. The rule for a paste is the same as for a cloth, only stricter: use it when the tarnish justifies it, rinse it fully, and keep it away from any finish that depends on darkness.
The Dip Dissolves, Without Rubbing
A dip works by a different mechanism entirely, and that is why it is both the fastest and the riskiest of the three. Most commercial silver dips are acidified thiourea solutions: the thiourea dissolves the silver sulphide of the tarnish chemically, and the acid speeds the reaction. There is no rubbing, so there is no abrasion, and a badly blackened piece comes out bright in seconds. That speed is the attraction, and it is also the problem. A dip cannot tell tarnish from intentional finish. It dissolves the darkening in the recesses as readily as the tarnish on the surface, so an oxidised or antiqued piece comes out of a dip uniformly bright, its contrast gone. Conservation work has documented the other costs as well: thiourea residues are difficult to rinse away completely, and the remaining film has been linked to faster re-tarnishing; repeated dipping can leave surfaces dull and etched, and can strip fine surface detail. Museum guidance is correspondingly cautious — dips reserved for pieces that are badly tarnished, used for only as long as it takes, followed by a thorough rinse in hot water and drying. For a piece with stones, the dip adds a further risk: porous stones, glued settings, and some treatments do not tolerate the acid, and a dip that is safe for bare silver is not automatically safe for a set stone.
Two Methods That Belong Outside This Comparison
There are two methods that belong outside this comparison, because they are often recommended in their place. Toothpaste is sometimes suggested as a household silver polish, and it should not be used: its abrasives are designed for tooth enamel, not for silver, and they are coarse enough to scratch the metal and some stones. The aluminium-foil-and-baking-soda bath, which converts tarnish back to silver electrochemically, is gentler than a dip in some respects, but it is indiscriminate in the same way — it removes the intentional darkening along with the tarnish, and it is not suitable for pieces with stones, glued parts, or oxidised finishes. Neither is a substitute for the three methods above; both are shortcuts that cost control.
A Ladder, Not a Contest
The choice, then, is a ladder, and the right rung depends on the piece in hand. For a plain sterling piece with light tarnish, a cloth, lightly used, is enough, and it is the only method that should be routine. For a plain piece that is heavily tarnished, a paste, used once and rinsed well, does the job the cloth would take too long to do. For a badly blackened plain piece with no stones and no intentional dark finish, a dip is defensible — briefly, with a full rinse afterwards, and not as a habit. For anything with an oxidised finish, a textured surface that depends on contrast, a porous stone, a glued setting, or plating, the ladder stops at the cloth, and the rest is a jeweller’s job. The question to ask before any of the three is not which one is strongest. It is what the piece would lose if the cleaning worked perfectly — because all three, used without that question, will take it.
— Tom